Loaches Online Forum

That looks really nasty At the moment keep up with the varied diet with added vits and as pristine water as you can-nitrates at 10ppm or below at all times. Problem with HITH is that it can show itself pretty quickly, but clearing it up can take a while and a lot of patience.

You should start to see gradual healing in the holes- ie: not as deep, before you see a decrease in the actual hole size. If theres no improvement at all in a week or two I would maybe revise and try an antibiotic of some sort, but as the holes look clean as of now I think what your doing now should help to start seeing an improvement.

Hope you start to see some positive change soon I assume feeding etc is normal?


Ashleigh

yeah, she is as greedy as ever and nice and chunky. Do you have any suggestions for antibiotics please? thanks.

Were are you from? A maracyn and maracyn 2 combo would be good if you can get hold of it, but that would only be if there was infection, there is another treatment (il look it up and post back). You would also need to seperate her off from your main tank to treat with that as it can interfer with you bb.

Just do what your doing now, there no point in adding stress unless necessary.

Ashleigh

Will do, thanks again Ashleigh.

I am in Cardiff.

No probs, have a look on ebay-there are some international sellers for Maracyn which is were I got mine from (its a product from USA), certinally something I would suggest investing in at some stage even if you dont need it right now-its a very good product, especially since we cant just go into an aquarium store and buy antibiotics.

Take a few pics in a few days/week and compare to those you just posted, you might not notice a diff infront of you, but if you look over a series of photos you might see a slight improvement gradually Fingers crossed for your little loach

Ashleigh

I don't know if this would apply or not, but it has been found that fish with HITH sometimes have an internal parasite called Hexamita. The Hexamita will cause nutrient deficiency, which can lead to the HITH.
Manual of Fish Health: Everything You Need to Know About Aquarium Fish, Their Environment and DiseasePrevention. By Dr. Chris Andrews, Adrian Exell and Dr. Neville Carrington, suggests using Dimetridole, Furazolidone or Metronidazole to clear up the Hexamita. Something to keep in mind anyway.

Metronidazole, that was the other treatment I was thinking of Hex actually didnt cross my mind until you said that!

You can have your standard case of HITH-poor diet/high nitrates, then hex then there is another bacterial issue that I have read about that required a fair bit of experimentation regarding treatments-there has been no recent update on that topic so no idea if what meds they were trying worked.

Metronidazole, if Im not mistaken is not found UK, it will have to be ordered via internet-ebay is probably best bet again.


Ashleigh

I've just finished a course of Octozin for the Hex and am a bit reluctant to treat again until the fish has had a bit of breathing space. I'll keep checking and run a course of antibiotics then think about re-treating for the hex.

Thanks again everyone. I'll post another picture in a week or two.